"Can I come in?"
"Of course, Nikki, what's wrong...?" I was concerned as I opened the screen door and let Nikki in. I didn't know my neighbor very well - we had had a number of casual conversations in the front yard in the year since she and her husband moved next door. So I was somewhat surprised to find her at my doorstep, with tears in her eyes.
"Oh it's not an emergency or anything," she said. "I just don't know who else to talk to."
"About what?", I asked.
She looked down at the floor suddenly unsure of what to say next. "Well...I don't know maybe I should just go...I mean we don't know each other all that well..."
Well she was right - we didn't know each other that well - but I thought she looked like she needed reassuring. "It's OK, Nikki," I said, "you're obviously upset and need to talk to somebody right now. You wouldn't have come over if it didn't make you feel better to talk. Just let it go and I'm sure you'll feel 100% better."
"Well, OK...just try to understand...it was such a shock, I need someone to talk to...", she said as I guided her over to the sofa and sat her down. I took a seat next to her and put on my best I'm-here-to-help-you look.
She was nervous and fidgety, but apparently mustered up the courage to continue. "It's Jack," she started. "I just ...well I just walked in and found him....well...you know...".
Jack, of course, as her husband. She couldn't seem to find words that would allow her to continue, but yet were consistent with her level of inhibition. But I could pretty well guess at this point, just based on her embarrassment. "Was there someone else there?", I asked.
"Oh, yes..." more tears welled up in her eyes. She was silent for a while, then looked up at me "I guess you can imagine ...I mean, yes, what you're thinking is right "
"Sure," I said, "a similar thing happened to me before. It happens to a lot of people. You're not the only one at all."
"I just don't know how I am supposed to feel....I'm so mixed up right now." Nikki was in control, but clearly the thoughts we racing through her head. "I mean, how did this ever start? What did I do? Where do we go from here...?". She fell silent again.
"Was it someone you knew?" I asked, hoping I wasn't being too inquisitive. I thought it would help her to talk about it a bit. And heck, I'll admit it, I was a little curious at that point.
"Oh ...yes".
I raised my eyebrows - "And...?"
"Michelle", she said, nodding her head in the direction up the street.
My jaw dropped "Michelle Deere?" She nodded in the affirmative. Now it was my turn to be shocked. I tried not to look too amazed, and make Nikki feel even more self-conscious, but I was a little astounded. Michelle was the daughter of the couple two doors down from me (Nikki's next-door neighbor). She was a 18 year old high-school girl, as pretty as they come. Of course I had noticed her before, walking around in the neighborhood. She had long-gently waving blonde hair, and he thin perky athletic frame of a young girl. Her face was about as cute as can be, like a little doll. Her body was newly blossomed into the shape of a fertile woman, with ample firm breasts. But she seemed so - so wholesome, I guess, walking off to school with her friends, in her little cheerleader skirt, giggling and smiling like - well, like a high school girl. She certainly had a radiant beauty, but to me always seemed so wholly untouchable, pure, and innocent that I couldn't readily imagine her being sexual.
Sure, I had, on a few mornings, awakened with an erection and ethereal vision of Michelle's legs, or ankles, or slender fingers, or ruby lips, dancing about in my head. I had even gone farther a few times, idly touching, stroking, and playing with myself until the images became more overtly sexual, gradually increasing in intensity until I felt a release of ecstasy. I had enjoyed the familiar warm, wet, slippery fluid of pleasure dripping all over my cock , balls, stomach, thighs, and imagined her lying with me there, tracing her little finger in the semen, running it over my chest, my thighs, my cock, then seductively placing her finger in her mouth and giving an impish little smile as she tasted my desire. But it wasn't a frequent fantasy. And it wasn't' one that I found satisfying later in the day, when my mind was more alert, and I found more realistically possible fantasies more compelling.
"Wow," I said. "She's so...young. How...?"
"I don't know how...I had absolutely no idea."
"Are you sure it was her - I mean, did you see her?". Now she had my full attention.
"That's the part that really threw me," Nikki started. "It wasn't like I just found a letter, or a lipstick stained collar, or the scent of perfume. It was just right there in front of me."
"What do you mean?". Hopefully my prurient interest was not too obvious. Honestly speaking, I was concerned about Nikki, and hopefully a good friend. But Jesus, how am I supposed to not want to hear this?
"Well,...." now she again paused, apparently realizing that further description was going to probe the boundaries of propriety. But again, she resolved to continue. "You know how we have that porch in the back with a glass door.? When the house is dark, you can see out there, but anyone out there can't really see in the house. So yes, I could see them fairly well, and they couldn't see me. Believe me, there was absolutely no doubt about who it was and what was going on. It was her. And they did everything."
Now I suppose I shouldn't have pried, but that kind of jumped out at me. "What do you mean 'everything'? I mean, how do you know they .... - didn't you only see them for an instant of time....?" I trailed of as I realized in mid sentence that what I was really asking is if she had stood in the dark, quietly breathing, watching like a dirty little voyeur - watching up close while her husband engaged in multiple sexual acts with a pretty little teenage girl. It's not a question you ask a neighbor you barely know, but that's how it had come out.
Nikki turned even redder than she was before, suddenly realizing what she had said. "Well....I guess I expected them to see me...and when they didn't....I just stood there. I didn't know what to do. I just stood there. I don't know...." Then suddenly she was defiant - "Well anyway, I am not the pervert here - I wasn't the one standing on the porch having sex with a young little teenage girl."
"Of course you aren't - I didn't mean anything by it - I just didn't understand...I mean..." I was trying to backpedal as best I could. And I meant it - it wasn't her fault what happened, of course.
But this seemed to trigger another level of confession in her. "Oh God, you're right, I feel so dirty....I guess that's the part that really upset me most of all. I was so confused. I can't understand what happened - what I felt. My first reaction was to scream. But when I didn't, then the next second passed, and then the next, and then more time - and still I just stood there. Then I slowly started noticing the details - staring at them. I just became so mesmerized standing there, watching, looking - there were just right there in front of me. I felt like I could just reach out and touch them. Everything seemed so interesting, so new - I've never watched anything like that. Oh God, you must think I'm a mess. I should just go. I've made enough of a fool of myself here. Please, please don't ever tell anyone about this."
I suddenly felt for her a new compassion. She was clearly in the midst of such personal confusion. It was terrifying for her, and I wanted to comfort her. I reached out and touched her shoulder. "Nikki, I want you to know a few things. First, your secret is safe with me - I swear to you. Second, I swear I do not think one bad thing about you. What happened was not your fault, and you have nothing to feel guilty about. You are OK. You are more than OK. You are a wonderful, beautiful, adorable, charming, sexy woman, and you deserve to be happy. However this ends up working out, I hope you are happy. You deserve to be. Don't let your perception of other people's inhibitions rob you of peace and happiness."
Nikki put her head on my shoulder. I put my arm around her. She leaned into me and began sobbing heavily. I hugged her gently. I held her close, with her forehead pressed softly against my neck. She cried and cried. I kissed her temple and whispered soft reassurances to her. "Go ahead and cry honey, you'll get it sorted out later....you're a wonderful person....". We sat like this, saying very little, for a long time.
* * *